The Ashanti

The Ashanti Campaign

Baden-Powell
brought many ideas home from the Ashanti campaign, in what is now Ghana in West
Africa. Many of them are still in use in Scouting today.

The Gold Coast, now Ghana, was a colony of the British Empire. B-P was sent
there in 1895 to raise a native force to oppose the powerful Ashanti tribe.
The Ashanti (Asante) were well known as fierce fighters, with the slogan

If I go forward I die
If I go backward I die
Better go forward and die

Baden-Powell's force was made up of hundreds of warriors from the
Krobos, Elima, Mumford and Adansi tribes. They had to scout out
a new route through the jungle, in enemy territory, and pioneer a
new road which the main British force could follow to attack the
Ashanti capital of Kumasi.

Pioneering in the jungle

Making a road through the jungle meant clearing the thick growth,
laying roads through marshes, and constructing bridges over rivers
and streams. B-P made sure his force was trained in skills of
axemanship, pioneering and knotting. They built more than 200
bridges from spars and lashed together with vines.

The Ashanti used drums for signalling over long distances, and
the intricate language of the drums could be heard every night
booming through the jungle.

Scout patrols

From the people of Ghana, Baden-Powell learnt the phrase "softly softly catchee
monkey" - and he learnt that he could get the best work out of his force
by dividing it into small groups, or patrols, and giving responsibility to the
captain of each group.

The Scout Staff

The Scout Staff was copied from one used in the Ashanti campaign,
to test the depths of swamps, to feel the way at night while secretly
scouting out the enemy positions, and also used to hang telegraph wires
from the brancehs of the jungle.

"It was in Ashanti, on the West Coast of Africa where my particular job
was to organize and command a corps of native Scouts and Pioneers.

"We were accordingly working two or three days in advance of the main body
of European Troops and in the densest primeval jungle and forest, without
roads or paths of any kind to guard us.

"In order to circumvent the enemy much of our advance had to be carried
out by night, which meant difficulties at nearly every step among fallen
timber, boggy streams, tussocks of reeds and bushes, etc.

"Without a staff, one could not have got along at all."

- B-P

The Left Handshake

There are two stories about the origin of the left handshake in Scouting.
The first is simply that the left hand is closest to the heart. But there
is also a much more interesting story, which comes from the Ashanti tribe
itself.

When B-P entered the Kumasi, the capital city of the Ashanti, he was greeted
by a warrior chief who held out his left hand. He told B-P "the bravest
of the brave shake with the left hand." So began the left handshake which
is used by millions of Scouts all over the world.

The explanation of the left handshake is that a warrior uses the left
hand to hold the shield, while the right hand holds the spears. So to
show your trust in someone, you put down the shield and greet them by
holding out your left hand.

Sources:
Baden-Powell, Scouting for Boys
Hillcourt, Baden-Powell: the Two Lives of a Hero
MacDonald, Sons of the Empire: the Frontier and the Boy Scout MovementThe Scout Trail, handbook of the Scout Association of South Africa.
Lord Rowallan, Forward to The
Left Handshake by Hilary St. George Saunders The Spirit of the
Staff